Over there:
Video of British soldiers beating young Iraqi boys.

Be forewarned. This footage is EXTREMELY disturbing.

The British government has said that most soldiers do not engage in behavior like this, and while that may be true, one thing has to be said. War can make beasts out of men, and this war is no exception.

When you are given weapons and free reign to use your power, brutality becomes a reality. War can turn good, honest people into brutal monsters. That is the nature of war, and no statements to the contrary can make that any less true. War teaches people to hate; how else could you brutalize and shoot people? It is dehumanizing and wrong. Period.

Videos like this one, and the pictures we have seen from Abu Ghraib just prove the point. Even if it is only a handful of people that get caught, dehumanizing an entire people results in untold brutalities toward them.

We have seen it in every war. Every war. Did we really think this one would be any different?

At home:
There are many studies showing a link between violence and sexual pleasure. Just one listen to the "narrator" of this video goes a long way in reinforcing that evidence. He literally sounds like he is getting off on the beatings. Is THIS what we want coming back from war? Soldiers who have linked violence to sexual pleasure and now are expected to "re-civilize" themselves? There is a great book by John Nichols called "American Blood" that illustrates this point vividly, using the Vietnam War as an example.

From increased domestic violence to increased sexual abuse committed by soldiers returning from war, the stories are many and tragic. We teach people to brutalize and kill while at war, and they apply those lessons learned when they return home as well.

This is a tragedy that affects not only those traumatized in wartorn countries (our own soldiers as well as the people in those countries), it affects those of us on the homefront as well. Some examples:

Post Traumatic Shock:
Violence in Military Families Goes Untreated
The Connection Between Militarism and Violence Against Women
Atrocities Abroad, Violence at Home

This war and warmongering must stop. Our planet literally depends on it.